What happened to Coldfire?

[AJCopland]

bloodline wrote:

Crumb wrote:
@bloodline

Also PPC is a sunk ship now...ARM and x86-64 are where it's at!

That's the reason all next-gen consoles use PPC.

Just a quick update to this, the next Sony console may well use x86-64  based CPU, since intel look set to be designing the next system... And there is word that MicroSoft will shift back towards the x86 also... Nintendo will probably stick with PPC.

Gotta ask, where did you hear that?

I work with both platforms and we've not heard anything.

That's not to say that they'll do anything that's expected for either platform I'm just curious.

As for your other assertions that PPC is dead, well, I'm confused by it. They still sell in the tens of millions into non-desktop areas (embedded), servers and supercomputers are still using them oh and then they are in all 3 of the *current* gen of consoles which sell millions.

They're not as powerful as a modern CPU like the Core i7 or Phenom II etc but then they are several years older.

One small correction, Cell comes with 4 or 8 SPEs, 8 in the PS3 and usually 4 SPEs in the plugin card versions you can buy for use in desktop PCs.

Andy

[AJCopland]

Oh I ignore the Inquirer, its a joke I mean this is the place that think nVidia paid Intel to get SLi support in the X58 chipset! And the article you linked to think that nVidia pulled the same stunt with Sony that they managed with MS on the Xbox1.

Next you'll be believing that Larrabee is an actual threat to ATi+AMD/nVidia GPUs :-D

I wouldn't like to guess what CPUs or GPUs are going to be used for the next-gen but they've certainly already been designing them either in parallel with the current-gen designs or after only a short break. So the idea that they're "about to start" is unlikely :/

ARM aren't a desktop CPU either, you can't claim the PPC is dead on the desktop and then suggest that ARM would be good *if* someone did a desktop version.

If its going in an Amiga and you want to maintain compatibility with OS4 etc then its going to be PPC for the time being.

bloodline wrote:
Rumours, from the various news sites... might come to nothing, but I like to keep up with the latest goings on!

Today's rumour:

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/851/1050851/intel-design-playstation-gpu

Well, I always err towards the Desktop... since the Amiga is a desktop platform... I kinda though that is what we are looking at... If you read my earlier posts I did say the PPC has some nice embeded implementations... I don't deny that... but I wonder how much more dev will be spent on it in future... Probably only IBM will spend anything on development in the future...

I expect intel will start making more embeded wins in future with it's new "atom" line of chips... and the ARM can't be beaten for low power consumption and decent performance...

Anyway, the Cell is not a desktop chip... any more than Sun's Niarga chips are...

[AJCopland]

bloodline wrote:
Sorry, I wasn't aware of any 4SPE chips... though I do recal Toshiba saying something... blah!

Anyway, the Cell is not a desktop chip... any more than Sun's Niarga chips are...

Yeah its Sonys fault. Basically we've got direct access to 7 of the 8 SPEs in the PS3. they use the other for... well for whatever they want :-D

The 4 SPE Cell put on the plugin cards allows you access to all 4. During the development of the PS3 though they touted using 2x4SPE Cell chips in the PS3 but when developer actually started getting the early kits it was a single Cell with 7 available (1 for Sony) etc.

Hence the proliferation of SPE versions.

Andy

[AJCopland]

Hmmm I'd personally say that Larrabee is more Intels reaction to nVidia/AMD gpus starting to look more like general purpose cores.
They've been heading that way for a long time so its inevitable that they'd end up becoming more like general purpose cpus. When AMD first announced their GPU-on-die idea they wouldn't just be thinking of using it for rendering.
So you'll get your ray-tracing in "GPU" hardware, in fact you almost can already but I don't think that Larrabee is the approach that stuff like PS4 would take. One of the PS3 ideas was it'd that 2nd Cell would be the GPU but the predicted performance just wasn't there hence why Sony went to nVidia.

The other thing is that Intel don't just make x86(_64) cpus so there's no reason that Sony might be going to Intel for an Itanium revamp.

I'll ignore the rumours into the hardware is announced I think. So far I've not read a good hardware speculation thats come out right.

Andy

bloodline wrote:

Next you'll be believing that Larrabee is an actual threat to ATi+AMD/nVidia GPUs :-D

Actually, if you remember we had a discussion about the future of computer graphics and I am actually in the Real Time Raytracing camp... So I do see Larrabee as a future contender... Actually, I see Larrabee as something like the Cell, but done right... ok, ok that is a very subjective opinion on my part.

Newer NVidia/AMD designs are going to look more like Larabee/Cell in the future, of that I have no doubt.

I wouldn't like to guess what CPUs or GPUs are going to be used for the next-gen but they've certainly already been designing them either in parallel with the current-gen designs or after only a short break. So the idea that they're "about to start" is unlikely :/

Now this I whole heartedly agree with you upon! I would be surprised if the development cycle was less than 5 years and we are expecting new machines in 2010/11...